Sunday, January 09, 2011

US rightwing fantasy vs. reality

The US right, fortunately, mostly still inhabits a world of rhetorical violence. You see, despite the rhetoric and the history, precious few wingnuts are actually willing to move beyond talk and engage in real political violence.

Theirs is an unreality where, despite their relative wealth and affluence, they live under a tyrannical government run by [circle one or more: gay/feminist/communist/Islamist/____]. They get high on the metheteric from Beck and Limbaugh, wank to the pornstar from Alaska, collect AR-15s and crates of ammunition, talk about liberty trees over barbecued steak and urine-beer. Their chat rooms are full of implicit and explicit anti-left and anti-government threats. Yet by and large, these people are palpably unwilling to act on their rhetoric.

So they get the odd fringe terrorist like a McVeigh or Loughner but, thankfully, the bulk of the right haven't managed to organise themselves enough to pull a Fort Sumter. Instead, the real fanatics in their ranks that end up detonating truck bombs or squeezing triggers are immediately parsed and disowned, thrown to the wolves, or associated with the left in some way. Their cowardice is a marvel but it is understandable. Crossing the line into an organised campaign of political violence destroys their personal security in real terms, not their imagined hardship under the policies of a Clinton or Obama.

They are much more comfortable then to elect a Bush or a Palin: No immediate personal risk but all the rhetorical crack they can consume. For now.

The danger, I think, rests in the near future should the US continue its socio-economic decline. Prolonged recession, higher oil prices, changes in social structures all deepen fracture lines in society and more organised and coherent campaigns might emerge as people have less and less to lose. But then by that point, it's probably game over of the UNITED States of America. However, in the meanwhile they are unable to walk their talk and that is a very good thing.

10 comments:

Edstock said...

"The danger, I think, rests in the near future should the US continue its socio-economic decline. Prolonged recession, higher oil prices, changes in social structures all deepen fracture lines in society and more organised and coherent campaigns might emerge as people have less and less to lose. "

Yes sir, that about sums it up.

Informed Despite Education said...

The beauty of history is that it provides us with many examples to work from. When governments become decadent then someone rallies the people to act on their behalf, only problem is you cannot truly control a mob. Once this mob anger is unleashed the U.S. will fall. All empires rise and decline and most of the destruction occurs from within. The day of democracy, or what we call democracy, may be nearing its end. All I wonder, and what really scares me more then this right wing rhetoric, it becomes more then just rhetoric.

Dana said...

There are people in the US and likely in Canada who are celebrating yesterdays shootings.

Palin is probably trying to figure out how to encourage more such actions without appearing to. So is the Tea Party.

Beck and Limbaugh and BillO and whatever the skinny blond twats name is, are all salivating gleefully and counting Rupert's bonus money.

This wasn't a one off.

Dana said...

Just to add...

Don't think for a moment that there aren't right wing crazies in Canada who aren't mad enough to undertake something similar.

This isn't a virus that stops at borders.

Informed Despite Education said...

We have had two Harper minorities, you better be damn sure that type of crazy exist in Canada and it is starting to feel comfortable coming out of its shell.

Rev.Paperboy said...

Boris,
I think you might be too optimistic. I think most of the far right and tea party types are a goddamn lynch mob waiting to be handed a rope. Palin, Limbaugh, Beck et al just keep throwning gasoline on the fire and every time this happens - and keeps on happening: remember Dr. Tiller? or the code Pink activist that got stomped by the Rand Paul campaign worker? or the Democratic campaign offices that got bombed? Or the two people shot at the Unitarian church in Tennesse? -- Every single time this happens, all we get from the Republican leadership is that such events are "unfortunate". All we get from the NRA is that "guns don"t kill people, people kill people."And all we get from the hatemongers on FOX and elsewhere is "who, us? We never told anyone to shoot anyone else, we just said certain people were islamofacist socialist babykillers who wanted to destroy America and deserved to die."
And what do we get from the mainstream, thoughtful, responsible centerist media? "Both sides do it"
Anyone want to bet that this weekend's edition of Press the Meat will feature Cokie Roberts uttering the phrase that will one day feature prominently in her obituary?
"...But the Democrats..."

Honestly, there are days when I think Canada should do the decent thing and annex Washington, Vermont and Maine, call in NATO to cordon off the rest of the US and blockade the place until they either kill each other off or run out of ammo.

The Seer said...

Dana adds
Don't think for a moment that there aren't right wing crazies in Canada who aren't mad enough to undertake something similar.

This isn't a virus that stops at borders.


Thing is, in the US, people like me can get all the guns we want; in Canada we can't.

Unless, of course, Harper gets his majority.

Boris said...

Rev,
We get all that and I'm not saying it's not dangerous but at the same time the crazies haven't reached the point of critical mass in terms of active violence. They actually go out of their way to disown the products of their rhetoric which speaks of cowardice and a fondness for the tough talk versus actual action - chickenhawks through and through. For the most part they get off on the tough talk but can't quite brings themselves to own the people from their ranks that act on it.

This might change, and we'll know when a rightwing insurgency develops, or the elect a government that starts locking up their political opposition, instead of the odd lone lunatic. They're a lynch mob in waiting, sure, but things are still stable enough that they'd lose more than they'd gain by acting on their rhetoric.

Polyorchnid Octopunch said...

Boris: which goes back to how things start to go down if the US economy starts to really unwind... which seems very likely given that the CRE bomb is close to detonation and the government is unable to actually do anything about the problems.

I think there's a real risk that things will go seriously south by the next set of US elections, or shortly thereafter if the non-28ers bring Obama back to fend off Palin/Bachmann 2012.

The one thing that the 28ers may not be counting on is that they aren't the only people with guns that know how to use them. Either way, it could become very ugly with serious civil disorder in many regions of the country.

Boris said...

Poly-O,
To be clear, I think the US is in serious and very likely terminal decline and we'll be pretty lucky if it remains 'civil' enough in the coming years.